Crystal - 2/16

Another beautifully sunny day at Crystal. However, there was a cold east wind all day keeping things cool and the snow firm. The only things that softened as the day progressed were the two faces on Lucky Shot. However, the grooming was extensive and skied well. With REX running, there were no lift lines in spite of the racers in Green Valley. The coverage remains really good in GV and even Lucky Shot until you get to the flats just before the bottom of the chair. Then it's pick your way around the muddy spots and rocks. So, we did figure-8s LS to GV to LS all day.

By early afternoon, Lucky Shot had turned into nice corn snow bumps you could blow up on the way through. Nothing like that happened in Green Valley. It sure is a lot easier to hit the CD Minimum ™ vert when skiing REX rather than a full day on just GV.

A lot was full today with a few cars spilling over into C lot. B lot bare and empty for as far as the eye could see.

The bottom half of the mountain and the front side of REX are looking really sad. And the long range forecast for the rest of winter is not looking very positive. Go skiing while there is something to ski!

On a side note, there were a lot of beginners on the hill today, both beginner adults and lots of beginner little tikes. Definitely not the day or conditions for them and they added a challenge as we were skiing down. Maybe they all had non-refundable lodging and lift ticket packages purchased earlier in the season for the holiday week?

And the half full glass Hamster version of the same thing -  (web site seems to be working better these days) - Another day on the Hamster treadmill….even better today since the race crowd was very small (just CMAC), the skier/snowboard crowd seemed smaller, the grooming was better in lots of places…but sadly the east winds were just strong enough to slow any real melt on some of the off piste bump slots I was doing yesterday – still nice if you like mostly smooth frozen bumps ( I do ). Early morning upload on the bucket was more mellow – though I jumped into the front of the line to talk to a friend way to early( we got the first bucket to ourselves for a spacious ride). Cause we were ahead of the race crowd we got to ski probably the best groomed slot down the middle of GV before it was closed off for the racing – it was fast smooth steep and nice quality snow (not told ice). Never had any real lines today, so it ended up being the figure 8 process of skiing riding REX and then GV and repeat – till early afternoon when it just became skiing REX. Snow got really soft on lower Lucky again today. Did Little Porteo based on CD recomemdation and it was left over smooth steep and fast. Got some nice smooth icy bump lines in Ann’s run! I really like smooth icy bumps! Lots of happy social folks…though there was a lot of parents dragging their ankle biters down Lucky and a number of folks carrying their skis around the slopes (not recommended).

Other – Noticed as I was leaving that the closed base lodge might have had the triple C soup again (it was closed earlier than the web site indicated it would be). Pay lot had cars, rest of A lot was full (one car had the concreate bucket attached to its front wheel), some over flow into C and looked like B was employee parking. Nice day, cooler than yesterday with the winds, nice “little”(bbb...iiii…ggggg) views from Baker to Hood and everywhere inbetween. Still hate downloading the bucket but we had a nice ride with some tourists (we be doing the host thing pointing out interesting things). Fun day as usual…what else would you expect?